The novel isn’t a satisfactory stand alone but ends in a cliffhanger, but that’s made moot by the fact that all three novels of the Chaos Walking trilogy are all out in print. THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO may be YA, but it's different and enjoyable, along the lines of LORD OF THE FLIES.Įven the flaws–valid though they are–can be offset. It could have been easy–especially in yet another young adult offering–to simply let the concepts become a splash of paint on the backdrop… but THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO is meant to provoke you. The ideas of what makes a man, morality of thought, violence, and gender differences are all raked through the coals. I can’t count the number of times I shouted out, mid-read, “that could not have just happened.” Ness not only maintains the mystery, the conflict, the emotion, the world concepts, and the narrative voice here, he amplifies it. What really makes this story (the first in a series) fly, is the writing. But from the very first line I was hooked. Meh.) The main character is a young boy with a dog…nothing really new there either (I’ve read enough variations of ‘Old Yeller’, thank you). The concept doesn’t sound too complicated (so thoughts aren’t private. The setting is nothing unique-it’s practically the same old tired European world we see in traditional fantasy, with just a hint of western thrown in (the western aspects were what kept me hopeful). I was worried when I first heard of the book. It’s worse than it sounds, however, because as Todd tells us, “The first thing you find out when your dog learns to talk is that dogs don’t got nothing much to say.” And when Todd finally discovers the girl, it results in a race for their lives, because there’s more to this world-and Todd’s town-than meets the eye. You see, Todd Hewitt is the last boy in his town on a colonized planet where biological warfare with the alien natives killed all women and caused all men and creatures on the planet to have their thoughts projected out loud in a jumbled “noise”. I could simply call it a story about a boy and his dog, or boy meets girl, or coming of age…but then I’d have to mention that the dog talks, the girl is seemingly the only one on the planet, and that being a man isn’t exactly something worth envying here.

It’s a simple story…in a gritty, continually plot-twisted, thought provoking and emotional thrill-ride kind of way. THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO by Patrick Ness ( Amazon) is one of those wonderfully deceiving Young Adult books that reminds us all of the days when there was no such thing.

The knife of never letting go series